How often do we get caught up with all the inspiration?
There are so many creative people out there in cyberspace.
My plate fills up fast, with things I want to do.
If only I was going to live to be a zillion years old!
In comes "Carol" to ground us just a bit.
Lets think on a smaller scale.
Something that's doable in a very short amount of time.
Thank you Carol, I'm all about that!
While I was working on my blocks for "It's a Wild Life" BOM,
I had some left over triangle pieces from trimming off my maple leaf stems.
On went my thinking cap.
Each section stitched and trimmed down to 3" blocks.
There was just enough to make this nice size 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" pinwheel.
...perfect for a small "Headliner" bag!
If your like me, you can never have enough bags around.
I was looking for something to put my binding clips in,
and this little one will be perfect.
Let me show you how I did it.
I start out by layering my block on top of a piece of "headliner" fabric,
and a piece of lining. I like to cut my headliner fabric about 1/2" wider and longer than necessary and the lining about 1" wider and longer.
Headliner fabric you say?
It's a great foam based product that they actually use on the roof inside your car.
It's widely used in purse making for stability.
At ByAnnies.com, it's called "Soft and Stable".
An 18" x 58" piece sells for $11.95.
There is a polyester fabric fused to each side of a piece of foam.
I'm cheap!
JoAnn's Fabrics also carries it. It's called a "Foam backed Headliner fabric".
It is sold for $14.99 a yard and is 54" wide.
As you can see, that is one huge price difference,
and they always have a sale or a coupon you can use.
There is a difference. Their fabric only has the polyester on one side of it.
I'm no expert, but I'm not sure what the difference is.
Once it's stitched inside your project, you never see it.
I have only used this and have no problems stitching it at all.
In fact, it's kind of amazing just how easy it is to sew.
That being said...
Here is what JoAnns posts on their site about it.
Dry Clean only fabric may "crock"
I must say, I have never had any "crocked" fabric yet.
LOL!!
(I'm so glad I'm not the only one who can spell worth beans)
But that being said, I very seldom wash my things made with it,
and I let them air dry if I do.
Sew...back to the block.
Layer them up and quilt them all together as you like.
I just stitched along the pinwheel blades. Trim it up square.
Next up we are going to make a piece for the top, using the same method.
Mine is about 2 1/2" wide, but you can use any size you like.
You want to make sure you make it wider than the last piece you stitched.
(you'll see why later)
Trim that up when your done.
Now take a zipper that is longer than your piece, to allowing for trimming later.
and stitch it zipper side face down on top of the pinwheel sandwich.
Make sure your zipper pull is on the bottom, before stitching.
Flip your block down and top stitch to the zipper.
Do the exact same thing for your little top piece next.
Now you can see just why we wanted the zipper to be longer
and why we made the top piece bigger.
It allows us to trim without hitting anything metal on the zipper,
as well as not having to be perfect in placing the top piece.
Move your zipper pull towards the center of the block
and stitch each end of zipper, before you trim.
Using your completed front as a size guide, make a back piece about 1" wider and longer.
Make sure your Headliner fabric and your lining fabric are larger as before.
Quilt as desired, and trim up the back.
Lay the top on the back keeping the lining pieces facing each other,
and stitch around all sides
Now trim up your new bag and bind to finish the edges.
I added a loop to my bag before I add the binding.
There you have it...
A quick and easy scrap buster.
For those who have an eagle eye...
You might have noticed that there were different colors of "Headliner" fabric
in these photos. It does come in tan and black,
and I have both in my bag of scraps.
When using batiks fabrics it doesn't show thru,
so I never worry about what color I use.
Wanna know what my favorite, bag of scraps are?
...not a thread do I waste.
LOL!!
It's amazing just how far our scraps can take us!
What's in your scrap bag...extra blocks, fun prints...panels???
They can all make fast and fun bags for any occasion.
I showed you mine, now you show me yours!
Just a reminder...if your interested in awesome labels for your quilts
or special projects...
Dutch Label Shop is offering a 15% discount until April 7th,
just for reading my blog.
use discount code
moosestashquilting15
(all lower case) at checkout.
Visit them
Now check out my fellow bloggers, fun little projects...
March 5
March 6
MooseStashQuilting...your here!
March 7
March 8
til next time...
Keep on Stitchin'
